Changing Reality
by The Threat
Summary: Oneshot, which serves as a prequel to... well, pretty much all of my previous stories.


Disclaimer: All characters that appear in here are mine. "Heroes" is created by Tim Kring. As for the story, it is inspired on the "Heroes Graphic Novels"

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Ten years ago, there was a young girl. She had the dream of becoming a star athlete, to be admired for what she can do, to be seen as more than just a little girl... in other words, to fulfill all of her dreams. That girl was called Aline Maertens.

In an early stage in her life, Aline started doing gymnastics. Like any other girl, she started off with nothing, but in time she grew to become better than anyone else. There had been a point when she was confident enough to perform her tricks on the so-called bridge, without any mattresses of any kind underneath in case she'd fall. So big her confidence had grown. The day she told her coach, he had declared her crazy, but she didn't care. And once she had demonstrated this to him, he was convinced otherwise. He even thought that during a contest, it may be something that could impress the audience as well as the judges if she did this.

That was when the day came. Aline got selected into the finals, where she was to perform her act, without any safety of any kind. Before she did this however, she knew that if she failed, this would not only result into her injury, or maybe even death. But the first thing that came to her mind was the idea that she'd disappoint her coach. The day before the finals, he told her that if she'd fail this, he would lose one of the best gymnasts he had ever coached, and he'd hate it if that happened. That was what kept ringing through her mind the whole time, especially when the time came for her to perform her act. It went well in the beginning. She had all the moves right, didn't make one bad move, until...

Was it a hand or foot she misplaced? Were her hands too sweaty, even when they were powdered? Or was it the pressure that gor her to lose all concentration? Fact remains that she somehow fell of the bridge and hit her head on the floor. Immediately, she got hospitalized, although both Aline's family and her coach already knew what the results of such a fall can be.

The next day, Aline woke up at the hospital. To her the events of the finals happened only moments ago. Before she could even start to figure out how long she may have been asleep, the doctor spoke to her.

"You're awake! Your family would love to hear that!"

Aline tried to say something, but the doctor stopped her: "Don't talk! You've slept for a day, so your vocal cords are too dry to bear it."

Aline didn't need to say anything for the doctor to know what she wants to know right now: "I guess you wanna know what happened to you. You somehow slipped and fell on your head. Funny thing is, your coach said you didn't fall on any mattress. This fall should have killed you. Somebody up there likes you!"

If only this doctor knew what it was that saved her. She didn't know what happened herself, exactly. But she could have sworn that when she fell, even though she fell on the hard floor, she was sure that it felt like falling on a mattress. It's like somehow the floor beneath her had changed it's density just when she fell.

Once she got out of the hospital, the first thing she could think of doing was going back to that gym, where the accident occurred. She remembered the exact spot where she fell, so she went to feel the floor there. After she did that, she checked the rest of the floor, with the idea she may have mistaken the spot. Whether she did or didn't, the floor was as dense as it should be. She couldn't understand any of this. She tried to concentrate on doing this again, but for some reason it didn't work. She decided she must have been imagining things, and that was just lucky.

Later, when she returned to practice gymnastics, another incident occurred. Somebody was climbing up a rope, but was afraid of heights. That somebody started to panic and shouted for help. Aline, who witnessed this happening, knew that in a panic like this it is more likely that this person would fall. That's when the unthinkable happened! The roof collapsed, however it happened in such a way that it brought the person climbing closer to the ground. This way, that person was close enough to survive the fall. Thought the person was saved, the gym needed a new roof, and Aline was confused. This is a similar event to what happened at her finals. Afraid that incidents such as these would happen again, she quite gymnastics and tried to live as a normal girl.

Like any normal girl, she celebrated Christmas. As a X-mas present, she got Disney's animated feature of Aladdin. The feature itself got to Aline, but not like it got other young children. She saw how the genie could only do things if people wished for them to happen. That's how she figured her powers work. Her coach couldn't bear it if anything happened to her, so his wish was granted, as she didn't get severely hurt. The same thing happened to that person who was climbing the ropes. It all made sense now! Or did it? The fact that she could do this made her less of the normal girl she was trying to be.

For the remainder of her life, she had tried to avoid fulfilling any wishes as much as possible. She would help where she could, as it was in her nature, just like a genie. But she would avoid doing the impossible when she could. But she still wasn't at all happy. She couldn't find any friends with whom she could share her secret, nor did she ever have boyfriend with whom she could confide. She hoped that when she finished school and started college, she would meet more mature people who wouldn't freak out if she were to tell them her secret.

One guy she met at college seemed like a perfect candidate. He wasn't particularly friends with anyone, nor did he talk much to them. He seemed to keep much to himself. Why, she couldn't be sure. What she was certain about, however, was that this guy was an outsider, just like herself. He wasn't the tallest of guys she had ever seen, nor the strongest. He didn't even seem to care much about the way he looked, which many guys she had met in her life seemed to care more about than any average girl. Long story short, he's the type of guy people would like to look past, but she wouldn't. There had been a moment when he looked at her. When she saw him looking, she smiled at him. When she did that, he went bright red and turned around. He was obviously too shy to even look at her. At a later point in time, he stood right next to her, but he couldn't bring himself to talk to her. At another point, she looked at her cell-phone once, and noticed to have his number on it. How that happened, she wasn't sure. She thought that he must have somehow wished to have her number, and for her to have his. Naturally, given her abilities, they both got what he wanted.

The guy in question, of whom Aline later found out his name was Olivier, had looked at his cell-phone that day too, and was surprised to see it had Aline's number. He wondered how that happened, but was always too afraid to ask her. Not that it mattered to him, for if he has the number of the girl he likes, give him one good reason to complain.


End file.
